Henry Roden

Henry Joseph Roden (August 8, 1874 – June 5, 1966) was Swiss born American prospector, lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of the Territory of Alaska as well as a member and subsequently president of the Alaska territorial senate.

Henry Joseph Roden
5th Attorney General of the Alaska Territory
In office 1941–1945[1]
Governor	Ernest Gruening
Preceded by	James S. Truitt
Succeeded by	Ralph Julian Rivers
President of the Alaska Senate
In office January 27, 1941 – January 25, 1943
Preceded by	Norman R. Walker
Succeeded by	Orville Cochran
Member of the Alaska Senate from the 4th district
In office March 3, 1913 – March 1, 1915 Serving with Daniel Sutherland[2]
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	O.P. Gaustad
Member of the Alaska Senate from the 1st district
In office January 14, 1935 – January 25, 1943 Serving with Norman R. Walker[2]
Preceded by	Allen Shattuck
Succeeded by	Arthur P. Walker
Personal details
Born	Henry Joseph Roden (1874-08-08)August 8, 1874 Basel, Switzerland
Died	June 5, 1966(1966-06-05) (aged 91) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Independent[3]

Biography

Born in Basel in 1874 Roden arrived in Alaska as part of the Klondike Gold Rush, arriving in Rampart in the summer of 1898.^[4]

In 1902 he began independently studying law, eventually passing the Alaska Bar exam in 1906 and served as assistant US Attorney in Fairbanks, assistant US Attorney in Iditarod and as City Attorney of Iditarod.^[5]

He was elected to the first Alaska territorial legislature in 1913^[6] and was subsequently re-elected as part of the 12th legislature in 1935 ^[7] and remained a Senator until the 15th legislature in 1941 when he served as Senate President.^[8] In 1941 he became Attorney general for the state of Alaska, a position which he held until 1944, when he stood unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for the Alaskan representative to the US Congress.^[9]

Throughout this time Roden maintained interests in mining. In 1919 he and others incorporated the Admiralty Alaska Gold Mining Company with himself as president, which controlled a mine in Funter Bay; in 1942 he was still an officer of the mining company,^[10] and following the start of the Aleutian Islands campaign and the evacuation of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands the mine was leased to the US government to house some of the evacuees. As Attorney general in 1943 he inspected the mine and wrote a letter to Governor Ernest Gruening expressing concern about the situation.^[11][12]